Spaces of being in between: A multi-ethnographic exploration of migrant women's experience in virtual and physical spaces

Abstract

Migration and digital technologies are two linked processes that shape the urban experiences of our time. Today, social media goes beyond being a mere medium of communication, rather it mediates people’s everyday activities within cities, influencing how people experience the place. Recognizing the embeddedness of social media in cities calls for urban planning scholars to explore new approaches to understanding the urban experience. Focusing on Iranian migrant women living in Melbourne, this research explores their multidimensional lived experience in the context of different forms of connectivity facilitated by social media in cities. The overarching question that this research seeks to answer is: how social media is affecting migrant women’s experience of public spaces?

To address this, I employed a methodology that integrates both the materiality and meaning of migrant women’s practices occurring within the realm of public space and social media to generate embodied-affective data in situ (Knudsen and Stage, 2015). Employing a multi-ethnographic approach, I combined online and offline ethnography (Miller et al., 2016; Pink et al., 2016). I conducted walking interviews with participants, during which I collected data on their experiences of public spaces and social interactions (Kusenbach, 2003). I then conducted social media ethnography to collect data on participants' online activities and to observe their interactions with the physical and social environment as shared through social media.

I draw on the concepts of translocal space and affect to conceptualize ‘the spaces of being in between’, including all material, symbolic, and spatial dimensions of space, as experienced by these women (Jackson, Crang and Dwyer, 2004; Low, 2016; Åhäll, 2018; Ivanova, 2022). ‘The spaces of being in between’ connect different localities and blend the virtual space with physical space through the affective processes and time-space compression (Massey, 1994). This paper takes on two tasks: first, it offers a nuanced narrative of the experience of Iranian migrant women while navigating between two worlds, living both 'here' (Melbourne) and 'there' (Iran). Second, it expands the concept of place by exploring ‘the spaces of being in between’, where these women negotiate their sense of belonging and find a sense of home away from ‘home’. Affects transmitted through social media, memories, and physical spaces, find their way into these women’s everyday lives, and become powerful agents, shaping their everyday politics and interactions in the multiple spaces they inhabit.